loveland

loveland by sassy

I carried Sienna upstairs to put her down in bed, a grin widening my lips when she muttered something under her breath as she adjusted her head on the pillow but, thank god, she didn't woke up. I love my little monkey just like I loved all my perfect daughters, but sometimes I loved them more when they were sleeping.
I walked back downstairs and out of the hourse, heading toward the car where Ryan was holding Sara in her arms, her being the one that never wanted to sleep. "Aren't you tired baby?" She asked her, closing the car door behind her.
"Exhausted," I said back and Ry jumped, my arms wrapping around her just in case she might lose hold of the baby. "Sorry," I added in a soft voice and she let me take Sara from our arms. She was definitely the sassiest of the twins, maybe even Sienna too. The girls were all so different, it was easy to tell already, even though the twins were only 2.
"No sleep," She added with a pout, her eyes taking in her surroundings. We'd been coming to the Hamptons house every summer, whenever we had a three day weekend, any reason we could find to get away from the busy city. "Play instead," She smiled again and Ry grinned at her.

"It's way past your bedtime cutie," My wife told her, following me up the stairs to the bedroom the twins shared. Sienna was almost five and as helpful as she was with the girls, she liked her space. She even had her first boyfriend, not that that really meant much when you were so young.
I laid her down carefully and a groan escaped her. "No please," She tried again, flashing her most dazzling smile. Our girls looked a lot like Ryan, but they had their dads smile. Or so I heard.
"Sleep please," I retorted with a grin and lowered my head to kiss her on the forehead. Ry smiled at the two of us then walked over to the bed to do the same, "We'll play in the morning and have pancakes for breakfast."
"Ice cream," She pouted again, such a princess. She definitely got the sassiness from her mom.
"You'll have ice cream if you're a good baby." Ryan went on, keeping her sweet smile in place as she played with our daughter's hair, trying to make her relax. It was easier said than done, she was a hurricane and definitely the crazier of the girls. She coudln't stay still or quiet for more than 30 seconds and when it was bedtime? She never wanted to sleep.
"No!" She said back, her tiny voice a little too loud and making me hold my breath because I didn't want Stella to wake up and have to deal with two babies instead of one. Her tiny hand reached for Ryan's hair and a second later she was about to cry already, throwing a tantrum just because she was tired, but still didn't want to sleep. "Mama." She whined.
Ry shot me a look that was a mix of desperate and exhausted, and I definitely knew that feeling. I untangled my daughter's fingers from my wife's hair before I picked her up, carrying her out of the room before she could start screaming. "It's time to go to bed baby, aren't you sleepy?" I asked softly as I held her against my chest, my eyes on her.
"Sleep with mama." She said back stubbornly and I swear I wanted to hit my head against the wall. We did our best to teach our daughters to sleep in their own room, but sometimes we were just too tired to argue and I ended up sleeping on the couch while all my girls slept together.
I glanced at Ryan, not knowing what to do and waiting for her to take a decision for me too. "Let's make a deal. Daddy will take you to mama's bed, but once you're there, you have to sleep." She said with a serious expression on her face and I was tempted to grin instead, because that usually meant that she fell asleep in our bed but woke up in hers.
"Is that okay cutie?" I asked to our little girl, who, despite everything, seemed to be pretty happy to have all our attention for herself.
"Yes daddy," She smiled up at me, a big toothy smile that could warm even the coldest of moods. "Cuddles," She added while grabbing fistfuls of my shirt in an attempt to hug him.
I grinned back at her as we walked into the room, our bags were still downstairs but luckily the bed was clean and it was all we really needed right now. We laid down fully clothed with Sara situated between us. Ry's eyes locked on mine and she smiled before closing her eyes and pretending to be asleep. It was a trick of the trade and usually worked on the twins, Sienna had become a pro on telling when we were faking it instead. "Night baby," I said softly and the bed shifted ever so slightly while I gave my baby girl a soft kiss on the forehead.
"Night daddy," She said in a whisper and Ry peeked her eyes open to find both of her eyes closed and her lips parted.
Ryan opened both of her eyes and smiled at me before looking at Sara again and watching her fall asleep, our sassy little baby looking like a real angel. "I think she's asleep," She mouthed to me, not wanting to make any sudden move and have her start screaming.
I nodded my head as we both got up, my breathing stopping when our baby turned but she didn't wake up. Thank god. I walked around the bed and reached for my wife's hand before she set two pillows by each side of Sara, always afraid she'd fall someway since she always moved a lot in her sleep. Once outside our room I let out my breath and smiled at Ry, "Finally alone." I said.
She smiled back at me as we walked down the stairs, "Thank god. I felt like it took a century to get here." She sighed since travelling with three babies wasn't exactly easy.
"We better enjoy some peace until it lasts." I grinned, pulling her against me and heading to the kitchen, "What do you want to do?"
"What do you want to do?" She asked back, a grin on her own lips.
"We should open a bottle of wine and watch a movie." I suggested, that sounding like a dream to me. What once had been normal, was a luxury now, we were always so busy or exhausted or both that I couldn't even remember the last time we had gone out on a date. Being parents was amazing, but a lot of work too.
She raised one eyebrow at me, "So that you can fall asleep after five minutes? No thanks."
I shot her an amused look, because she was right. No one could blame me though. "Okay mami, what about yes to wine, no to the movie, and we sit on the porch to enjoy the night?" I suggested, that sounding just as good to me.
"That sounds perfect," Ryan replied, keeping her eyes on me as I grabbed a bottle of chilled wine from the ice chest we had brought. She reached for two glasses and an opener and we walked outside, the silence around us so surreal since it was practically extinct in our house. "Do you hear that?" She lifted an eyebrow at me as we walked around to the porch, sitting down beside each other.
I listened to the silence for a second before shaking my head, "No."
"Exactly," She grinned and tried to contain her excitement while I opened a bottle of champagne, holding both of the glasses out as I poured us each a full glass. "I love coming here," She said quietly before bringing the glass up to her lips and taking a long slow sip.
"That's why I keep bringing you back," I winked at her and then took a sip, setting the bottle down on a table beside me.
She leaned into my side and stared at the moon, closing her eyes for a second and then opening them. "Every time we come here I end up pregnant," She grinned and looked up at me.
I nodded my head with a somber look on my face, "So we're not having sex this weekend."
"Joseph!" She poked my side but kept her smile in place.
"Don't Joseph me." I groaned, making her pull back and narrow her eyes on me.
"Don't groan." She retorted.
"Don't narrow your eyes." I said back but at that point I was smirking for how silly we were being. There had been a time when we fought over the silliest things, but when you had three babies you rather save all your energies for something else than fighting.
She bit down on her lip to conceal the grin threatening to widen her lips, "Don't threat me with no sex."
"Never." I laughed and stopped the silly argument with a kiss, cupping her face with my free hand until we were both smiling against each others mouth. When I pulled my head back regretfully, I pushed her hair behind her ear. "But no more babies for a while, I don't think I could do that."
She nodded in agreement, "I know, those three little crazy girls are already enough." She said softly but was still smiling because that was the effect talking about our babies had on her. "We'd end up having no sex at all."
"That sounds like a nightmare." I said seriously, no matter how silly that sounded. We were parents, true, but we were still young and loved each other like crazy, the attraction between us was as strong as the first day if not stronger...I needed my wife, as a woman, as my woman, not just as the mother of our girls. Even if we were tired, exhausted even, even if we were busy with our family or work, we always found time for ourselves. Or at least tried.
"I agree," Ry smiled. "Lets make a pact; we will have sex at least once a day. If one of is too tired, then the other person is in charge of oral."
I stared at her with a serious face, struggling not to grin as I parted my lips, "I'm too tired for sex. Please me woman."
She let out a loud laugh and then covered her mouth, always afraid she'd wake our babies up even though they were all tucked away in bed. "My husband the romantic," She replied and smiled at me.
"I do what I can," I said and moved my hand up and down her arm to warm me up. "Are you tired?"
"Are you offering to go down on me right now? Because I wouldn't say no," She grinned up at me and I laughed. "I'm always tired," She admitted. 
"I know you are." I said with a sigh as I ran my hand up and down her arm, wondering if and when we'd stop being so exhausted all the time. It was probably not happening for the next ten years. If that.
She tilted her head back to look at me with a silly grin on her face, "Was that a yes?"
"Nice try, but it wasn't." I grinned back at her and the way her lips turned downwards in a pout almost instantly.
She stared at me, her eyes big and dark just like Sienna's, "I'm starting to feel rejected. Don't you love your woman anymore?"
"I love my wife more than myself. And that's a lot to say." I paused to let out a silly chuckle. I swear, sometimes I felt so tired I got delirious. "But I think we can wait a little for going crazy sexy, there's more I want to do with my mouth now."
"That still sounds naughty." She pointed out, smirk still in place as she took a sip of wine.
I laughed this time, shaking my head, "I meant talk. God only knows when we'll have some time to do that again without having three crazy girls around." I grinned at my own words even if that was true. The girls needed so much attention that sometimes to get some time for us together Ryan had to come to my office. We were going through a few intense months but I also couldn't remember the last time I had been so happy. Never before probably, I felt as if I had finally all I had always wanted and I was complete with my four girls and my job.
"What happened to your original plan of having an entire baseball team?" Ryan grinned at me, remembering how we'd joke about having enough kids to form a team. "Have you changed your mind already?"
Another laugh escaped me as an eyebrow raised, "If we have another, we might never have time for sex again."
She pouted once more, "As much as I love our girls, I still want a baby boy."
"Knowing our luck? The next one would be a girl too," I said seriously but still smirking.
"Meh," She replied and wrinkled her nose. "I've just decided that we should never let the girls date."
"Oh god." I muttered and poured myself another glass of wine. Whenever I thought about it, I nearly panicked. If they were like Ryan? We would need to lock them down for ten years.
She shot me an amused look as she watched me, "Does the thought alone make you want to get drunk?"
"Yes." I said seriously as I downed my glass, knowing I couldn't take another one or I'd fall asleep instead. "We're going to have so much craziness and hormones to handle that we'll get grey hair before time."
She let out a chuckle, though she had to know I was right. "Don't worry, I'm on the pill baby. No more kids at least for a while."
"See we did everything wrong. We should have had a boy first so that the girls would have had a big brother to look out for them." I said seriously, glancing at Ry.
"Hey, you wanted a girl!" She protested and poked my side, a silly grin on her lips.
"I didn't know I had a say in that, did I?" I asked as I did my best not to smirk but failing.
"No, but if you had your choice you still would've chose girls," Ryan replied matter-of-factly, probably remembering how I'd wrap an arm around her at night to set my palm flat on her belly, telling her how I'd hope it'd be a beautiful girl that looked just like Ry. I could never regret that wish, not for even a second of the many sleepless nights I had gone through for the last five years.
"Sienna was so easy..." I trailed off.
"The twins aren't?" She grinned back at me, knowing what a handful they were sometimes, Sara especially. They kept us on our toes all the time, Sienna too. Once she'd be old enough, she'd be plenty of help with the girls. Thank god.
I let out a sigh before grinning, "I love those girls, but they're going to make my hair go grey."
She ran a hand through my hair and faked a pout, "You'll still be the sexiest man alive."
"Even if I won't be, you'll be stuck with me anyway." I grinned at her before kissing her lips slowly, until she was grinning again.
"I don't remember agreeing to that." She muttered against my mouth as she leaned her head back to rest her nape on my shoulder.
I shot her an amused look, "Oh you did. I didn't buy you a diamond ring for nothing."
She faked a silly sigh, shaking her head, "I can remember now. Vaguely." She said back then stopped, blinking her eyes, "Did you hear that?"
"What?" I asked since all I could hear was the ocean splashing in the distance.
"Mami!" Sienna's voice broke the silence and I nearly groaned when she came out on the porch, her pout full force and her eyes big and desperate. "I had a nightmare." She said sobbing, running to Ryan and climbing on her lap. There it went our night of peace.
I unwrapped my arm from around Ry and caressed our daughter's cheek instead, "It was just a bad dream monkey, it's over now."
She ignored me, snuggling against her mom, "It was scary. There was a huge dog that wanted to eat me."
"And there you are instead, all safe and sound." Ryan said quietly as she looked down at her with a small smile on her lips, rubbing her back.
Our big little girl pulled her head back, still pouting, "I want a puppy mami." She said and I laughed since that was so random. Our apartment was already a mess, we didn't need any pet.
"But it'd get huge and try to eat you!" I widened her eyes at her, being silly.
"Jo." Ry glared at me.
Sienna, who was a really smart girl, stuck her tongue out at me. "That's not true dad!"
"There you go, now you know that baby. You can go back to bed." I smirked at one of the loves of my life, squeezing her foot.
"I want to stay here instead," She said as she cuddled Ry, looking on the verge of falling asleep. "Please," She added since all week we had been working on manners.
Ryan smiled and kissed her forehead, "Won't Bunny miss you?" She used her favorite stuffed animal as bait, the bunny rabbit she had been carrying around with her since birth. Her uncle had given it to her and when he left for college, she missed him like crazy.
Our baby frowned again and looked at me as I watching the two of then with a smile on my face, my heart melting for how much I loved my girls. "Will you bring me Bunny please daddy?"
I laughed again and shook my head, "I think I just heard Bunny crying and calling out for you."
"Lies," She wrinkled her nose but grinned as Ry tickled her side, her little giggle warming so adorable. "I don't love tickles!!"
"But we're having a tickle party right now and if you want to stay, you'll get tickles too," Ry told her, still tickling her sides while I tickled her feet. I kept my distance though, the last time Ry tried tickling her feet she got kicked in the face.
"Okay I'll go to bed!!" She cried out, still giggling like a silly baby. "Stop!!"
"What did you say? More tickles?" I asked as I moved my hands to tickle under her arms.
"Stop daddy!!" She laughed with her smile wide, her eyes squinting. "I'll go to bed I said!!"
Both Ryan and I stopped and I got up, grabbing her from Ryan's lap and pressing a noisy kiss on her cheek before setting her back on her feet. "Good night baby." I said smiled at her.
She pursed her lips together and lingered a moment, making me fear that she'd change her mind again. Instead she looked at Ry, "Mami I want a goodnight kiss from you too." She said quietly, even pouting a little.
Ry bent over her, her smile big and her eyes too. "Oh baby come here." She wrapped her arm around our oldest daughter and kissed her her cheek, "Sweet dreams."
"And if I have a nightmare again?" Sienna asked with a worried expression on her face as Ry pulled back.
"You can come to us again." I tried to reassure her, looking at her, "But it won't happen, don't worry."
She seemed to believe me and with a nod she started marching back into the house. Finally. I watched her until she disappeared then looked back at my wife, "Who's going to interrupt us now? Stella?" I asked with a sigh and sat next to her again.
She cuddled against me, a small smirk on her lips, "Doubtful. She's the only one who always sleeps through the whole night."
"Great." I commented shortly, mostly being silly because even when they didn't make me sleep, even when they were impossible or even when they didn't give me a break, I still loved my daughters more than anything else. "Do you think we're having a Sara round two?"
She let out a soft chuckle, tilting her head up to look at me, "I hope not. But even if we did, we'd still have the rest of the night. It might be late for the girls but it's early for us...and you know that summer nights always last longer."
"Mostly when I don't have to work the day after." I grinned back at her, remembering how years before when it was just us we'd spend the whole night on this same porch, talking, drinking, making love...now it was different, but it was just as amazing.
"Tonight I have you all to myself instead," Ry smirked back, relaxing against my chest.
"Such a needy wife I have," I said in an amused tone and pressed a kiss against her cheek.
She wrinkled her nose before grinning at me, then she shrugged her shoulders and faked a serious face, "Your needy wife wants real kisses."
I laughed softly and set my fingers on her chin, tilting her face upwards before lowering my face towards hers and kissing her cheek at the last minute. "Oops, I missed," I grinned while she rolled her eyes with her smile back in place.
"No wonder our daughters are so silly. I married the silliest man alive," She told me.
"Twice," I replied with an amused look on my face.
She smiled wider and leaned her head back against my shoulder, "Does it make me twice as lucky?"
I shook my head, my mind not even wanting to go there. Our first wedding had been...well, a mess. "No." I said simply.
She looked up at me with an eyebrow raised, making it clear she wasn't liking my answer. "How come Mr No?"
"Because you weren't so lucky the first time." I said with a shrug and smiled, wanting her to know that I didn't care about the past. It was just the past, that now that we had three gorgeous daughters seemed even more far than it really was. It seemed like another life.
She let out a sigh, but smiled again eventually. "Without our first marriage we wouldn't be here."
"Such wise words, no wonder why I married you." I said as I struggled to keep a straight face but I could feel my lips quirking into a smirk.
"You married me because I was pregnant." She said back, amusement in her voice and showing in her face too.
I grinned, glad that we could talk about anything, even our hard past, without even blinking. There had been a time when we'd fight over anything. We were too old and tired for that now. "No, I got you pregnant because I wanted to marry you again and I needed to find a trick to keep you with me forever."
"Lies," Ry said with a little laugh, knowing for a fact that neither of us had originally planned on having a baby so soon... not that we regretted it. "You almost had a heart attack when I told you instead."
"Almost doesn't count," I said matter of factly, still grinning.
"The same thing happened when we found out we were having twins..." She trailed off, always trying to prove her points. I was the same way. We liked being right.
I pulled her onto my lap and held her body tight, "What are you trying to say silly woman?"
She wrinkled her nose as she looked up at me, "I just want to hear the magic words I love hearing."
"I love you?" I tried and she grinned again.
"No, but I love those ones also," She said seriously and kissed my cheek.
I raised one eyebrow at her thinking hard but either I was too tired or I had lost my power of reading my wife's mind. "I have no idea." I confessed.
"Oh, come on! You're not even trying!" She protested, poking my chest with her index finger.
I thought about it, hard too, but my mind was blank. I was definitely getting old. Then I got it, thank god, "Oh you want me to tell you that you're not wrong."
She nodded her head as a pleased smirk curved her lips, "Yes. And when you're not wrong, what are you?"
"Me? I'm right." I grinned back at my wife, holding her tight and enjoying the silly moment because we didn't have time for many.
"No, you have to tell me I'm right instead!" She went on, being a stubborn woman even over something so silly. I loved it.
"Oh okay!" I said and grinned wide, "I'm right instead."
She rolled her eyes and sighed, though I could tell she was as amused as I was, "I give up."
"You're right." I kissed her nose before pulling her against my chest and nuzzling her neck.
"Was that so hard, silly husband?" Ryan lifted an eyebrow playfully as she kept her body motionless against mine.
I let out a sigh, "Yes."
She laughed and adjusted her head to look me in the eyes, finding a smile playing on my lips. She stole a quick kiss then set her head back against my shoulder. "I want to take advantage of being alone for once and have sex, but I'm too tired... does that make me officially old?" She wrinkled her nose, her words ones I would have never heard in the past. But we weren't kids anymore, everything had changed except for how much I loved her.
I grinned down at her and at her silly face, kissing her nose and only making her wrinkle again before I pulled my head back. "No, that only makes you human." I said simply. We weren't necessarily old, but we weren't that young either. Time was passing for us too and we had tons of responsabilities, we were busy a lot and a lot tired too. We couldn't have sex always and everywhere like we once used to, that was for sure.
She frowned, disappointment on her face, "I'm not your goddess anymore?"
I let out a soft chuckle, pulling her against me as I hugged her. My wife was the best and, no matter how cheesy it sounded, she really was my missing half. "You will always be. But even goddesses need to rest sometimes."